St. Louis, MO – Yi Liu, a/k/a “Ronnie”, 28, Orange County, CA, was charged in a criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to defraud Enterprise Holding, a St. Louis, Missouri-based company. He was arrested in California on Thursday, April 13. His detention hearing has been set for Monday morning, April 17 in the Central District of California at the Santa Ana Federal Courthouse.

According to the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Liu and others defrauded Enterprise Holdings, which is the parent company of Enterprise, Alamo, and National car rental brands by setting up a fake car rental website. To carry out this scheme, he used fraudulent identification documents and caused the proceeds of the crimes to be wired to a bank account. From approximately May 2016 until present, Enterprise has suffered a loss of approximately $600,000 due to Liu’s fraudulent purchase and resale of car rental vouchers.

If convicted, conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000; aggravated identity theft carries a maximum penalty of 12 years consecutive to any other term of imprisonment and/or fines up to $250,000; and wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000. In determining the actual sentences, a judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

As is always the case, charges set forth in a criminal complaint are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations.